An Exercise in Alternative History

[BellaMiles]

NOTE: I realize now that the way I set this up isn't going to work. (I'm not surprised; I figured the setup was doomed but I wanted to try.

Therefore, this thread is dead, and I am beginning a new one tonight or possibly tomorrow.

An Exercise in
Alternative History​

How to play:

1. We begin with history as we know it.
2. I post an AltHistory event and, optionally, describe an important result.
3. You follow up with your own post in a similar fashion.
4. Lather, rinse, repeat.
5. The goal is to see where we can take this madness.

Rules and Guidelines:

1. PLEASE, no OOC posts. If you have a question, comment, or compliment, PM the appropriate writer or include it at the end of your own reply.
2. Replies should be <200 words, but that's your choice.
3. Be nice! Don't criticize others' posts.
4. Do not post consecutive replies. (I do, to start us off, but that will cease.)
5. Post to multiple threads if you wish.
6. You do NOT have to post to ONLY the most recent reply.

Composing your post:

• Please take a look at some of my initial posts to see how I composed them. (You do NOT have to do it MY way; I only suggest it because it is so easy to read.)
• We want readers/contributors to be able to track back through the previous replies.
• This requires a few things be done in your post:
  • Use "Quote" to open a reply window.
  • Delete the [Quote] coding at the top and bottom.
  • Be sure to include the previous writer's name and Post #.
  • If a link to the previous reply is not included and you know how to include it, please do so.
  • Write your reply. You may edit some of the previous writer's text as necessary, but preserve the premise and AltHistory for context.
  • Post.
  • Lather, rinse, repeat ... again.

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Threads​

1940, Europe: England loses the Battle of Britain, signs armistice with Germany

October 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis leads to a launch of nuclear missiles

 

[BellaMiles]

1940, Europe: The UK loses the Battle of England, signs armistice with Germany

By BellaMiles, Post #2

Real History:

• Hitler throws his Luftwaffe at England in what will come to be known as the Battle of Britain (July to October 1940),
• The British win the air battle, preventing an imminent invasion of the UK by the German Army.
• Ultimately, of course, England and her Allies defeat Germany.

But what if...?

• Germany's Luftwaffe wins the Battle of Britain.
• Churchill sues for an armistice, which Hitler grants, with conditions. (You can include these in your reply if you wish.)

End of this reply
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[BellaMiles]

1940, Europe: The UK loses the Battle of England, signs armistice with Germany

Building upon the previous post by BellaMiles, Post #2

• Germany's Luftwaffe won the Battle of Britain, 1940.
• Churchill sued for an armistice, which Hitler granted, with conditions. (You can include these in your reply if you wish.)

End of this reply
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Reply by BellaMiles, Post #3:

Germany turns Wehrmacht against Soviet Union; sends U-boats into Atlantic:

Germany's Western Front is secure: England is standing down her forces, the US is not yet in the war, Vichy France is becoming more stable what with an end of English support.

With lightning speed reminiscent of the earlier Blitzkrieg, Hitler turns the vast majority of his Wehrmacht -- the Heer (army), Luftwaffe (air force), and Kriegsmarine (navy) against the Soviet Union.

At the same time, Hitler's submarine force -- the U-boats -- begin patrolling the North and Central Atlantic, seizing control of the waterways.

End of this reply
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[BellaMiles]

October 1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis leads to the launch of nuclear missiles.

By BellaMiles, Post #4

Real History:

• After the US puts Medium Range Ballistic Missiles in Turkey and Italy, the USSR does the same in Cuba, with the Soviets putting more missiles on ships heading for the Caribbean island.
• The US blockades Cuba, and a showdown pushes the world to the brink of nuclear war.
• But negotiations are successful: the US agrees to withdraw its missiles from Turkey (and Italy, possibly), in addition to vowing never to invade Cuba, while the USSR agrees to dismantle and retrieve its nukes.
• The Cold War continues into the 1990s (and, some feel, to this very day, despite the dissolution of the USSR).

But what if...?

• Tensions at the naval blockade led to actual conflict...
• ...and one of the sides launched a nuclear missile...
• ...and the other side launched more.
• How far would it go, what would be the result, and how would the world respond?
• We begin our AltHistory with the launch of a single nuke ... but from whom at whom?

End of this reply
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[BellaMiles]

October 1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis leads to the launch of nuclear missiles.

By BellaMiles, Post #4

• The US puts Medium Range Ballistic Missiles in Turkey and Italy, the USSR does the same in Cuba, with the Soviets putting more missiles on ships heading for the Caribbean island.
• The US blockades Cuba.

End of this reply (which was edited down to the essentials).
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War erupts: America sinks 2 Soviet ships, and a Soviet General launches a nuclear missile (Post #5)

In the Caribbean, a Soviet freighter attempts to run the US's naval blockade of Cuba. Two American Destroyers perform a pincer movement, resulting in a collision, opening the freighter's hull and, hours later, sinking her.

Meanwhile, a Soviet Destroyer on station nearby opens fire on one of the American vessels. In defense of his ship, the American Commander -- without seeking permission from higher ups -- fires two torpedoes, sinking the Soviet Destroyer as well.

Also a meanwhile, an American spy plane launched from Turkey is misidentified by the Soviets as being a bomber, possibly carrying nuclear ordinance. Again without permission from his higher ups, a Soviet General with command over MRBM (Medium Range Ballistic Missiles) launches one at the Turkey base from which the bomber departed.

 

[DeadManTyping]

1940, Europe: The UK loses the Battle of England, signs armistice with Germany

By BellaMiles, Post #2

• Hitler throws his Luftwaffe at England in what will come to be known as the Battle of Britain (July to October 1940),
• Germany's Luftwaffe wins the Battle of Britain.
• Churchill sues for an armistice, which Hitler grants, with conditions.

End of this reply
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Stalin dies; Germany successfully invades USSR:

• Hitler had long planned to invade the Soviet Union, despite warnings from his military leaders that the losses would be too great.
• Hitler began transferring forces as inconspicuously as possible to various locations near Soviet controlled lands, both their own and those they'd occupied since 1939.
• Then, in early Spring 1940, Joseph Stalin and a dozen high ranking military officials were killed in a bombing by an anti-Communist organization.
• Hitler seized on the opportunity, sending every Wehrmacht unit available at the Soviet lines, which crumbled without strong leadership.
• Less than a month later, the cities of Leningrad, Kiev, and Minsk had fallen, and a month after that, German forces surrounded Moscow, laying siege to the millions trapped within.

************This is the end of my post **********​

 

[BellaMiles]

(Welcome, DeadManTyping. Good to have you here.)

1940, Europe: The UK loses the Battle of England, signs armistice with Germany -- By BellaMiles, Post #2

• Germany wins the Battle of Britain (the July to October 1940 air war over the English Channel and England itself).
• England and Germany sign an armistice (December 1941), with Hitler demanding conditions:
  • NEWLY ADDED CONDITIONS
  • England is prohibited from flying military aircraft over the English Channel more than 5 miles from its coast.
  • England is required to destroy her bombers and long range fighter-bombers.
  • No English warships are permitted in the English Channel or anywhere -- north, south, east, or west -- more than 12 miles from its shoreline
  • Commercial aircraft must depart from and land at UK airports that are to be put under Germany monitoring.
  • The same policy is applied to English shipping.

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End of this reply
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Stalin dies; Germany successfully invades USSR: -- DeadManTyping (Post #6)

• In early Spring 1941, Joseph Stalin and a dozen high ranking military officials were killed in a bombing by an anti-Communist organization.
• Hitler seized on the opportunity, sending every Wehrmacht unit available at the Soviet lines, which crumbled without strong leadership.
• Less than a month later, the cities of Leningrad, Kiev, and Minsk had fallen, and a month after that, German forces surrounded Moscow, laying siege to the millions trapped within.

************This is the end of my post **********​

Japan seizes the opportunity to invade Russian's East: Post #7

As Germany's invasion of the USSR continued so successfully, many Soviet troops in the east were put upon train for the 4,000 to 5,000+ mile ride to Germany's Eastern Front, which of course was Russia's Western Front.

Japan seized the opportunity: in May 1941, they invade Soviet territories in Manchuria and Siberia from the already-occupied peninsula of Korea; they committed a major force -- land, sea, and air -- to capturing Vladivostok; and they began a months long process of capturing or sinking any an all Soviet vessels, both military and commercial, from the Bering Sea to the South China Sea, as well as bombarding all Soviet ports over the same range, both military and commercial.

Russian influence in the Far East was well on its way to ending.

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End of this reply
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[VoraciousValue]

Ooh! Ooh! I love alt history!!!

1940, Europe:

The UK loses the Battle of England, signs armistice with Germany

• Germany wins the Battle of Britain (the July to October 1940 air war over the English Channel and England itself).

• England and Germany sign an armistice (December 1941), with Hitler demanding conditions:

-- England is prohibited from flying military aircraft over the English Channel more than 5 miles from its coast.
-- England is required to destroy her bombers and long range fighter-bombers.
-- No English warships are permitted in the English Channel or anywhere -- north, south, east, or west -- more than 12 miles from its shoreline
-- Commercial aircraft must depart from and land at UK airports that are to be put under Germany monitoring.
-- The same policy is applied to English shipping.

By VoraciousValue, Post #4

1. With the Western Front effectively finished, Germany devotes more scientific effort and resources into their nuclear program, which hadn't gotten far before then.
   
2. Germany accelerates development of jet fighters and very long range bombers with the potential to hit the U.S. East Coast.
   
3. Erwin Rommel's Desert Corps lands in north Africa unopposed. Cairo and the Suez Canal are quickly seized, opening the gates to the oilfields in the Middle East.
   
4. Adolf Hitler takes political steps to crush support among France's African colonies for Charles DeGaulle's Free French movement, despite the Free French victory in the 1940 Battle of Gabon.
   
5. U.S. isolationism starts to erode as the threat posed by Nazi Germany becomes clearer. President Franklin Roosevelt starts working very quietly to put America on more of a war footing.

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End of this reply
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Stalin dies; Germany successfully invades USSR: -- By VoraciousValue (Post #8)

In early Spring 1941, Joseph Stalin and a dozen high ranking military officials were killed in a bombing by an anti-Communist organization.

Hitler seized on the opportunity, sending every Wehrmacht unit available at the Soviet lines, which crumbled without strong leadership.

Less than a month later, the cities of Leningrad, Kiev, and Minsk had fallen, and a month after that, German forces surrounded Moscow, laying siege to the millions trapped within.

• A Soviet resistance movement emerges behind German lines, ambushing convoys and attacking German supply lines.
  
• The citizens of Moscow barricade and mine the entire city, determined to make the Nazis pay dearly for every inch. Women and children are taught basic attack techniques with pointed sticks and similar implements. Starvation starts becoming a major problem among Muscovites.
  
• The Germans besieging Moscow find themselves in trouble with supplies (especially food and fuel) becoming increasingly unreliable.
  
• A cadre of Soviet leaders escape through German lines and reorganize the Soviet government in Kuybyshev/Samara, 500 miles southeast of Moscow. In a radio address, the new leadership vows to fight the war "to the very last drop of Russian blood."

End of this reply
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(Bella, thanks so much for doing this! I'm sorry if my formatting is screwy.)

 

[BellaMiles]

NOTE: I realize now that the way I set this up isn't going to work. (I'm not surprised; I figured the setup was doomed but I wanted to try.

Therefore, this thread is dead, and I am beginning a new one tonight or possibly tomorrow.